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After the morning milk and supplements feed, the orphaned elephants played on the mound of dry soil. Ashanti lay down and invited Losoito to climb on top of her while Kenderi played with Manda. Cheeky Itinyi could not resist play mounting Hildana as he lay dusting himself and, not far away, Tamiyoi played with Juni, Baraka and Busara. After their dust bath, the herd headed out to the field at the beginning of a long day of browsing.

In the afternoon, Mbegu, Godoma, Murit, Tagwa and Ndotto joined our dependent herd. Matriarch Mbegu noticed new arrivals Sholumai, Sileita and Mushuru. After welcoming the new girls with trumpets and trunk touches, she walked over to spend time with adopted babies Busara and Rokka while Godoma stood close to Baraka and Tagwa trunk hugged Juni. Our babies were very happy to see their big sisters after an absence of over two weeks.

The two herds browsed together until later in the afternoon. When our herd wandered back to the stockades, the five semi-independent elephants walked away - but showed up at dusk to drink water from the stockade trough.

After the morning milk feed, the dependent orphans began playing. Itinyi, our well-known water baby, lay down close to the stockades mud wallow, thinking about climbing into the cold water. He stretched out his trunk to touch Losoito’s legs in a bid to persuade her to get into the water first. When Losoito avoided his advances and walked away, Itinyi decided against a morning mud bath.

Epiya was lying on the upper terrace, playing right at the edge. Itinyi and Hildana stood on the lower terrace, making sure that Epiya could not fall down and hurt herself.

The elephants headed out to the bush in single file and spent the morning browsing all over Msinga Hill. In the afternoon, they visited the mud bath for a brief wallow before moving back out to browse.

Chapeyu does not yet walk out with the herd. Although he is making a good recovery, he is not strong enough to wander a long distance. Instead, we make sure that he walks around his enclosure as movement is good for healing. In the evenings, Juni, Ashanti, Baraka and Manda, who sleep in the neighbouring stockade, often stretch their trunks through to greet him. He is getting to know his new family.

After feeding on milk and range cubes, the dependent orphans gathered around the pile of red earth to play.

Sholumai and Mushuru played together, with Mushuru stretching out her trunk to welcome Ushindi to the game. Lemeki squatted on top of the mound, waving her trunk as she watched her friends playing. Ashanti and Hildana were having fun, hosing red soil in every direction while rolling around and rubbing faces.

The herd headed out and settled to browse all over Msinga Hill. Rokka and Manda climbed to the top while Lemeki, Thamana and Losoito were happy to stay on the lower slopes.

In the afternoon, the orphans padded down for another milk feed in groups of five with Sholumai, Sileita, Mushuru, Losoito and Busara in the first group. Afterwards, some of them cooled off in small pools of standing water, avoiding the main wallow as it was a windy day. Soon after they left, a herd of wild elephants with two little calves took their place to drink and wallow.

As our herd browsed on range cubes and lucerne, Mbegu and Godoma wandered in to join them. When Busara saw Mbegu, her adopted mother, she rumbled loudly many times and made a big commotion. Tamiyoi, Godoma. Sholumai, Sileita and Mushuru stood watching the two elephants and then went back to browsing on pellets.

The orphans were in playful moods and many enjoyed an early morning dust bath. Lemeki and Losoito rubbed their faces against the ground while Manda play mounted Rokka with trunk twirling.

When the herd headed out to Msinga Hill, Mbegu and Godoma, tired after a night browsing in the bush, stayed behind to rest. Baraka and Busara were reluctant to leave but eventually were persuaded to follow along behind the others.

It was a cool afternoon and the orphans did not wallow in the mud bath. Itinyi lay down in a small hole and invited Akina to join him while the rest of the herd drank from the trough or massaged their backsides against trees.

After the morning breakfast routine, Ashanti walked over to the mound of red soil on her own, stood on the top, picked up a chunk of red soil, and tossed it skywards. Akina joined her, squatted on the soil next to her and waved her trunk in excitement. Losoito paddled in the stockade water hole. When Itinyi climbed onto her back, she found it difficult to push him off as she was standing in water. At last, she succeeded and took refuge with Tamiyoi on the terraces.

Watching on from the sidelines, Sholumai, Sileita and Mushuru followed after Losoito and stood close to Tamiyoi, not wanting to run any risk of being mounted by Itinyi.

The orphans spent the morning on the slopes of Msinga Hill and visited the baobab tree mud wallow in the afternoon. Only Juni got wet, choosing a large puddle rather than the main wallow, while Lemeki scratched her bottoms on the baobab tree, Manda opted for the delonix tree, and Tamiyoi rubbed her body against Baraka’s back.

A refreshed herd ambled back out to browse some more before returning to the safety of the stockades for the night.

Emoli visited his old human-elephant family again this morning! He arrived on his own with no other ex-orphans following him into the stockades. He padded over quietly to join the others at the feeding trough.

Young girls Dabida and Seri were enjoying their pellets on the upper terrace and did not allow any of the boys to share their space. When Hildana climbed up the terrace, Dabida pushed him firmly down. When Manda did the same thing, Seri shoved him away.

Many of the orphans were happy to see Emoli. Hildana and Seri sandwiched him between them for many trunk touches and hugs. Afterwards, Emoli played sparring and chasing games with best friend Thamana.

Later in the morning out in the field, Emoli wandered away from the herd to browse on his own. Our dependent herd ended up browsing close to a herd of wild elephants. They did not stay near them for long, instead walking away quickly in a cluster. Perhaps they were scared by the wild matriarch who had very long tusks, even though she seemed peaceful.

In the early morning, the dependent orphans gathered in their shared enclosures, waiting for us to open the gates so they could sprint out for another milk feed followed by lots of range cubes and lucerne. The ex-orphans did not visit today and so our herd had the whole area to themselves.

After a brief dust bath around the mound of red soil, the elephants moved out to the field to browse.

At the water hole on a cool afternoon, none of the orphans were interested in mud bathing except for Manda. He plunged into the water and invited Itinyi, who was walking along the edge, to join him. Itinyi ignored him.

When Ashanti saw a herd of wild elephants strolling by, she ran over to join them. The wild elephants walked on towards the thick bush to the north of the wallow with our pick-up in pursuit! We rescued Ashanti, who is still milk dependent, from her possible kidnappers and brought her back to her herd.

Mbegu and Ndotto were the earliest callers at the stockades but they arrived without the others. The dependent orphans were happy to see the two seniors who are always calm and friendly. Baraka and Busara immediately abandoned Tamiyoi and clustered around Mbegu.

The two visitors followed the herd to the field, browsing at a distance, and catching up with them at the water hole in the afternoon. The elephants did not go mud bathing due to the cold weather but Ashanti and Seri played in a puddle of mud. Mbegu and Ndotto stayed with their old herd for the afternoon and followed them to the stockades in the evening.

As the herd was walking back to the stockades, a trumpeting Manda was playing a running around game. Unfortunately, he ran into a herd of wild elephants with an aggressive matriarch that sometimes visit the mud wallow. We quickly drove towards the herd in our pick-up calling to Manda, but it was too late to rescue him. The herd headed for an area of thick bush where we could not follow, taking Manda with them. We returned to the stockades as darkness had already set in.

Mbegu and Ndotto joined the dependent orphans in the early morning for range cubes and lucerne grass at the stockades. Rokka, Dabida, Baraka and Busara gathered around Mbegu, rumbling in welcome.

After filling their bellies, the elephants headed out to browse on the southern side of Msinga Hill close to the stockades. They spread out in small groups, browsing with their friends. Tamiyoi was with Lemeki and Losoito, while Juni was next to Rokka and Baraka.

Mbegu and Ndotto followed the herd out to the hill but went off on their own for the rest of the morning before rejoining the orphans at the mud wallow in the afternoon.

The sun was shining and many orphans enjoyed a cool down. Itinyi moved from one puddle to the next, splashing in them all. When he found Ashanti wallowing in the muddy water, Itinyi trunk hugged and play mounted her in the mud. Ashanti pushed off the annoying bull and climbed out of the wallow. Seeing what was happening, Mbegu stood guard over Busara as she rolled in a patch of thick mud, protecting her from playful orphans like Kenderi and Kilulu.

We searched for the herd that kidnapped Manda yesterday from early in the morning until late in the evening without finding them. The search will carry on tomorrow and we hope to find Manda soon.